Name: Irish Cream Cabbage
Ingredients: 1 white hard head of cabbage; 1 large onion; 1 cup of cream or 2 cups of milk thickened with butter and flour; coarse sea salt to taste; black pepper to taste

Why it works: Cabbage and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,081 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Irish Cream Cabbage

Ingredients

1 white hard head of cabbage
1 large onion
1 cup of cream or 2 cups of milk thickened with butter and flour
coarse sea salt to taste
black pepper to taste

Directions

Prepare

Wash the cabbage in several waters.

Cook and season

Boil the cabbage until tender, then drain and chop it very fine.
Chop the onion and mix it well with the cabbage in a saucepan.
Add the cream or the thickened milk, and season with salt and pepper.

Serve

Serve very hot.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

Cabbage + peppertop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,081 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Cabbage + oniontop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3,001 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together68,474 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Onion + creamtop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together10,827 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).
Cream + peppertop 23% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together21,449 recipes

Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Onion and cream barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 10,827 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Cabbage: Forms the bulk of the dish and becomes soft and tender when boiled.
Onion: Adds aroma and a mild sweetness that balances the cabbage.
Cream: Adds richness and a smooth, creamy texture that coats the cabbage.